Presenters: Daria Kholodilina & Zviadi Kelenjeridze

“Trails and Wines”, Georgia

Being born and raised in Ukraine, Daria came to the Republic of Georgia three times, before she decided to move and settle. Before doing that, she lived in Izmir, Turkey, and Berlin, Germany. Both of those cities with their chaotic, creative vibe gave her the idea about the perfect place to live: mountains, nature, warm people from multiple areas of the world hanging out together… Tbilisi, Georgia, was something in between. Being tired of traveling in Europe, and feeling like South-Eastern Asia starts having more international travelers rather than locals, Daria decided to settle in Caucasus, and that was the best decision of her life.

In 2017, together with a renowned sommelier Miquel Hudin, she has co-written the guidebook about the Georgian wine regions – exactly the culture, gastronomy and travel lifehacks part. She knows a lot about Georgian wine, and is befriended with multiple winemakers.
Zviadi was born and raised in Tbilisi. From quite a young age, he started going to the mountains with people who shared the same philosophy: the best destination is the one where you’ve never been to, and the more adventures, the better.
Nowadays, he is one of the most proficient Georgian specialists in this field, as well as co-creator of the national standard of trekking routes marking.

While Eastern Georgia (Kazbegi, Tusheti) is more or less popular amongst the international travelers, the regions such as Racha, Lechkhumi and Samegrelo remain unknown. And here he goes, to explore the places that didn’t really see the travelers, put them on the map, and mark them properly, so that the future guests of the area would find their way without any problem.
Together, Daria and Zviadi decided to create the travel company that would focus on authentic experiences only. They take their guests to the places that they genuinely like, to the regions that are scarcely populated, to the real Georgian families that cook local food and make wine according to the 8000-years old tradition. They invite the international people to learn some local crafts, to sing and dance together with the Georgians, to be aside of the mass tourism as much as possible.
The main idea of “Trails and Wines” is to make the guests travel in time, while traveling in space, to share the piece of the Georgian soul with them, and to make them feel very welcome. This is what a big company and a big group can never do.